Re: [Harp-L] Irish Music on the Harp

"Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:11:14 +1100

A friend sent me this refernce from CD Baby just today. Anybody know
abpout this bloke? Joel Bernstein is the harmonica player's name:

CD Baby: RANDAL BAYS AND JOEL BERNSTEIN: The Pigtown Fling
  a.. CD Baby: homea.. searcha.. new musica.. top sellersa.. stylesa..
salea.. accounta.. cartRandal Bays and Joel Bernstein
The Pigtown Fling
ÃÂ 1996 Randal Bays and Joel Bernstein (705648960128)
CD OUT OF STOCK for re-production. Expect long delays.
Traditional Irish music on fiddle and harmonica (chromatic and
diatonic) by two master musicians. This CD was first released in 1996
and has become an underground classic in Irish trad circles.tracks

  1 The Sligo Maid/dowd's #9/the Boys of Tulla2 The Trip to Athlone/the
Boats of Killaloe3 The Lane to the Glen/sgt. Early's Dream4 Lad
O'beirne's Hornpipe/the New Century5 Up to Your Nose in Sand/bunker
Hill6 Amhran Hiudai Phadai Eamoinn7 Sporting Paddy/sean Sa Ceo8 Johnny
Doherty's Jig/the Humors of Trim9 The Pigtown Fling/the Long
Drop/mcgovern's Reel10 The Lament for the Fairies/the Castle of
Tuamgraine11 The Single Man/murphy's Greyhound/youghal Quay12 Gina's
Waltz13 Last Night's Fun/hardiman the Fiddler14 The Dogs Among the
Bushes/ballinasloe Fair15 The Rose in the Heather/derrane's Jig16 The
Maid in the Meadow/the Enchanted Lady/conor Tully's Reel17 The Ragged
Hank of Yarn/the Templhouse/tim Moloney's Reel18 A Brief Discussion of
the Music Businesstry this
albums you will love

By Location
  a.. USA: Washington
Recommended if you like ...
  a.. Martin Hayes
  b.. Kevin Burke
  c.. Brendan Power
links
  a.. Randal Bays
notes
Joel Bernstein is an American musician who is one of only a handful of
harmonica players to really capture the sound of Irish traditional music
on that difficult instrument. His partnership with fiddler Randal Bays
has been widely praised and can be heard to full effect on this great
duet album, which has become something of an underground classic among
fans of Irish music. It was selected by the "Irish America" magazine as
one of the "Top Ten Irish Traditional Recordings of 1997".
reviews
Please log in to review this album.email
Please log in to email this artist.a.. about b.. contact c.. help d..
CD Baby e.. HostBaby f.. FilmBaby 

>>> Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> 3/04/2008 7:56 >>>
People to listen to would include

Brendan Power (CD: New Irish Harmonica)
Eddie Clarke (Sailing into Walpole;'s Marsh)
Mick Kinsella    
The Murphy Family (CD: Trip to Cullenstown)
Open House (Fiddler Kevin Burke with harmonica player Mark Graham)
Donald Black (fantastic Scottish player)
Tommy Basker (fantastic Nova Scotia player with Irish influence)

More here: http://www.irishmusicreview.com/harmonicadiscography.htm 

Jigs have two beats, with each beat dividing into three parts. The
irish Washerwoman is a jig.

A reel keeps up a fairly steady 8 notes to the bar, which can be seen
as two longer beats or four shorter ones. Turkey in the Straw and
Arkansas Traveller are both reels (American ones).

Celtic music is all about melody - after all, it comes largely from
vocal melodies and unaccompanied bagpipes. So whatever the pipes,
fiddle, flute, etc. play are what the harmonica plays.

That said, a harmonica player can "feather" chords in around the melody
and support it. Here's an ullistration of what I mean, though the tune
is not Irish (it's French Canadian):

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/m2/f7/13286.mp3 

Listen to how the fiddle and harmonica (Mary Bolduc) play the melody
together, with harmonica adding little rhythmic chords that give bounce
to the sound. This is what the harmonica was designed to do.

Attacking notes via chords is one way a harmonica player can ornament a
melody; one of the things you run into is that a lot of the melodic
ornaments on other instruments are hard to play and often don't sound
very good on harmonica - the rapid changes of breath direction can make
them sound choppy and hard to play accurately at speed.

For the forms of different types of tunes (jig, reel, hornpipe, polka,
march, slide, slip jig, strathspey, etc.) use these as search words;
there's a lot out there.

One place to ask questions on the net about ITM (Irish traditional
music)  itself is The Session:

http://www.thesession.org/ 

There's a lot of horseplay and nonsense, but also a lot of excellent
knowledge. Just search their archives like you would search the harp-l
archives.

Winslow

Todd Dahl <lucidmonk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: I am a complete newbie to Irish
music. At this point I don't know the
difference between the different forms. For example I don't know the
difference between a reel and a jig. Anyway I want to learn about how
to
play it on my new Paddy tuned harp. <>

So I was wondering where does the harmonica fit into the Irish music
scene.
>From a newbies standpoint does anyone have any pointers or links to
any
websites that will help me learn the forms and structure of this
music?

Also from a traditional standpoint does the harmonica imitate melodies
of
the other instruments like the tin whistle, flute, or fiddle? Or are
there
standards on the harp?

Lastly, is there any CDs that can be recommended that a person must
listen
to?

Any input would be appreciated.
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